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All of my gouache illustrated greeting cards are now on sale for half off until they are gone! I know, it is a sad day but it is time.
I am currently working on a new line of greeting cards that will replace this current line. Remember my father's day and graduation cards? My new collection will be more in sync with those designs. A little simpler. A little more graphic. And with only hand lettering. I'm really excited about the new designs and can't wait to be able to share them.
In the mean time, feel free to replenish your greeting card stock pile with all of these great cards!

I successfully made the move to Austin, Texas and am loving it! Hopefully, I'll be able to tell you all about it later this week. It took a while to unpack, get settled and able to get out of "vacation mode" and get back into "working mode."
I have a long list of plans for emilee rose, including now offering custom design services!
A new page has been added detailing the two types of services that I will be offering. I encourage you to check it out, but here is a quick little run down.
I started a new etsy shop with ready-made designs. You can "order" a design for a calling card, announcement or stationery and have the digital file emailed to you to print and use over and over again. Right now, the shop has a few options, but my head is going nutzo thinking of new designs. I'm hoping to add save the dates, birth announcements and other fun party invitations.
....
Besides the ready-made designs, I am now completely open for custom design. Anything you need designed, I am happy to help! A few examples of my work can be seen on the Custom page.
Before I moved to Austin, I finished up my portfolio site, which has a whole bunch of other examples of my work. Feel free to contact me about custom work!
I am really excited to be able to build emilee rose a little more. I'll be working hard on adding new designs to the custom shop, so check back often for updates.

So, summer is technically not here yet, but here in Texas it definitely feels like summer. My big move to Austin is in exactly 2 weeks from today and I'm extremely nervous excited! So this weekend I'll be busy with some last minute projects and might be popping into work to help them move into a new location as well.
Every summer I feel like I inadvertently make a summer jamz (yes, with a "z") playlist to get me through these scorching months. Just last week I scored the new Cults album and it is the perfect summer album. I will leave you with the best song (in my opinion) and say that I hope you have a great weekend!

Remember this bed?
Well, it's going into storage for a very long time and will not be coming with me to Austin. This is a very bittersweet goodbye as I adore this bed in its girlyness and its sentimental value. But the truth is, it's an OLD bed. The hinges are getting too loose to fix anymore and I don't want to completely break it.
And so, on to a new chapter.
I have a very basic platform bed that I will be using but need a great headboard.
I found this image and tutorial on Design*Sponge a while back and thought it seemed like such a fun and easy idea. I have upholstered a headboard before and so this one shouldn't be any different. The question is, what shape to make! I have a nice soft blue fabric picked out. I thought a pattern would be really fun, but I might get tired of it or it might end up making my room look more juvenile (though, Grace's fabric is anything but juvenile...)
Option one would be to do an elaborate shape like this one from West Elm. Its a very similar shape to Grace's, but a little more toned down with the solid color.
So far, I think this headboard from Crate and Barrel is my favorite. It's simple and still slightly feminine. I am planning on making buttons and tufting the headboard so, I think this will look the best for the ambiance that I'm trying to achieve in my new room.
Another, and simpler option would be to just make a rectangular headboard like this one. Could be an option if I get lazy...
I am going to forgo the foam and just use batting to cut down the cost. Since I don't know what my job sitch with be yet, I'm trying to do everything on the cheap. I'll make sure to post a tutorial with cost breakdowns once the project is complete.

A few weeks ago...or what could now be a couple of months ago...my coworker and I made a day trip to the Houston Zoo. We were given free tickets from a customer last year, but wanted to wait until the African Safari was complete. The day was beautiful! Sunny and not too hot. Thank goodness we didn't wait to go until now! It's a sauna in Houston!
And there were baby animals everywhere! The fence blocked some good pictures, but how adorable is that little monkey?
The African Forest was much like going to Disney World. It had its own gift shop, different music and an entirely different feel than the rest of the zoo. Apparently you can feed the giraffes, but you had to pay and wait in line...so we passed.
It was a fun day for all and I would highly recommend a trip here if you are in town visiting. The grounds have been redone since I was last there as a child and it is simply gorgeous!

A few months ago, my friend Heather commissioned me to paint a pet portrait of this adorable pup for a birthday gift. I had just started my other original paintings and agreed to paint the portrait of the pooch.
I love the way the painting turned out. So much so that I have decided to offer custom pet portraits in my shop! It's painted in acrylic on a 5" x 7" wooden plaque and takes about 2 weeks for me to ship it to you. (Though if you need one in a jiffy, I'm sure I can work with you on that.)
If only I could meet this adorable little gal in person!

It's about time, right? I was busy creating a bunch of new products for Renegade and I finally have some free time to put them all for sale!
I'm really excited about my new work, mainly because I am veering away from using computer typography and solely using hand lettering. The new work is also digitally colored rather than painted with gouache. I found that my gouache paintings, though I love them, always turned out duller in color than I wanted. This way, my colors can be as bright as I want them to be.
A couple new products....
Father's Day CardsRecipe CardsFlat Boxed Thank You's
That is it for now. Be sure to stop by the shop to see all of the new goodies. I have all of the mini paintings photographed and will be spending the next week or so editing and posting those as well. Stay tuned!

Image via.
That's right! I'm going to be moving to Austin in just about a month and couldn't be more excited! Early this year a friend of mine got into The University of Texas Landscape Architecture program (VERY competitive. We are all so proud!) and we casually joked about me moving with her. And I thought, why not?!
I love being close to my family and do have a wonderful job and great friends, but Houston as a whole has very little to offer me, in my opinion. Though I do appreciate the efforts of Houston It's Worth It and the team behind this Tee, this city is just not for me.
And so I'll be moving to "hippy-land" as my mother likes to call it. The land of food trucks and live music. A city full of bike lanes that are actually utilized. A city where parks and rivers and lakes flourish. A city with an slew of vegetarian friendly restaurants (this is sadly something I am super excited about. Vegan queso anyone?). And simply a beautiful city.
I'm a little nervous about moving back to such a small city after living in Houston for almost 3 years, but I thrived in Milwaukee and it's really about the same size. As of right now, my job situation and place of residence is up in the air, but I am confident that I'll make it work. This is my own little adventure! And for those of you who know me well, I don't really do "adventure." I prefer to play it safe, but decided to try living a little.
I still plan on continuing emilee rose and hope to work harder on marketing and wholesale. I might even try to do a little freelance, depending on the job I get.
Mostly, I'm just really excited to be making the move and embarking on this new adventure!

Well, it has been a week since Renegade Austin...and I needed that week to just RELAX. After prepping for Renegade, a weekend in New York and then a weekend in Austin, I was exhausted.
I had a blast at Renegade and in Austin. (For those of you who may not know, I'm moving to Austin in about a month--more on that later!) For years, I have seen photos and have heard many artist and crafters stories of going to Renegade and it was really great to be a part of that.
People started pouring in right as the doors opened on Saturday morning. Lora and I were in the back corner, which was not so great, but we still got some good foot traffic. Sales were low across the board and most vendors were extremely disappointed. Even though sales were not what I had imagined, I still had a blast.
A corner booth was something new to conquer in booth layout design. We decided to position our tables so that there was no booth to enter and everyone walking by could see our stuff. I think it worked out really well, but I don't think I'll want a back corner booth again!
I am getting more and more organized and efficient with each show I do. I learn something new every time. For example, I packed my stuff in a rolling suitcase this time so that I didn't have to haul around big totes. Next time, I might invest in a dolly to lug my merch around.
I also made new price cards. They are all handwritten and printed in different colors. I love the new, more crafty look that they bring!
My mini paintings were such a hit! I was so grateful to hear so many wonderful things about them. The mini Texas ones were the most popular (Texans LOVE Texas.)
Lauren of Blue Eye Brown Eye was in the booth next to us. She also makes adorable letter pressed stationery (odd placing to stationers together). Her booth was ADORABLE! It was very simple and clean, but looked like her own little shop. I'm definitely keeping this in mind for future shows...
Lora and I stayed at Habitat Suites, what was said to be a "green" hotel. We each bought a Groupon on decided to give it a shot since it was eco-friendly and a great deal. It was...not all it was cracked up to be. The faucet in the bathroom ran and I immediately thought of all of the wasted water! The rooms looked like they have not been updated since, probably 1986. For the price, I thought it was fine and don't really care too much about where I stay. BUT, if you are advertising being an award winning green hotel, I expect a lot more. A few things that were cool about the place: a mini vegetable garden outside our room and a super vegetarian friendly breakfast! No meat was served and I loved that I got to eat veggie sausage and have soy milk at a hotel! That has never happened.
There is going to be a Renegade Holiday show this year that I might consider, and since I'll live there I wont have to travel far. It was an interesting trip, for sure, but I still had so much fun!

All of the food that I ate in New York was amazing! So much so that I had to document all of it. It was sort of surprising to me that the places that I went to eat were not just OK, but all shockingly good. Thank goodness for all of the walking, because I think I could get in trouble with eating too much delicious food!
The first place we went was Whole Foods, which I thought was the funniest place that I could be taken to grab a bite to eat. I mean, there are really Whole Foods everywhere, so I didn't really see why this was so special. Honestly, I still don't, but I am still laughing that this was the first place I was taken in New York!
We met up with my boss and her husband for cocktails at Gramercy Hotel. The hotel was gorgeous and the drinks were super yummy! I had a cocktail that consisted of vodka, pineapple juice, papaya juice and basil. Delish!
I was super excited to eat at Angelica's Kitchen, an organic and vegan restaurant. It had been recommended to me by a couple of people and definitely lived up to it's hype. The wait was almost an hour, but so worth it. We started with a curry cashew spread as an appetizer and then I had the "Ole Man Seitan." It was essentially a burrito filled with homemade seitan and veggies, covered with a spicy mole sauce and tofu sour cream. It was quite the treat for me.
The name of this place is escaping me and I really wish I could remember it! We went out for vegetarian Indian food on Saturday night. There was a prix fixe meal, which means that we got to try about 6 different appetizers, 6 different entrees and a dessert. We were all far too stuffed to eat all of the food, but we managed to suffer through it and try it all. If I can figure out the name of this place, I'll make sure to update this!
My friend and I picked up pastries from Balthazar. My oatmeal raisin scone was very tasty!
What is a trip to New York without takeout? By the end of my trip I really didn't want to walk anywhere else, and I was so grateful when my friend and her roomate suggested takeout. Yes, please! We ordered food from Calexico, a sort of Cali-style Mexican restaurant. I ordered a black bean quesadilla that came with a side of Crack Sauce. I still have no idea what was in this sauce, but I'm still craving it four days later.